Asia Series

From BR Bullpen

The Asia Series is an annual international postseason baseball competition between the domestic league champions of Asia. The tournament began with 2005 with teams representing China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. It was not held in 2009 or 2010. It resumed in 2011 with Australia replacing China as the 4th team.

[edit] History

The first tournament, held in 2005 at the Tokyo Dome, was won by the Chiba Lotte Marines (NPB) with the Marines' Benny Agbayani as the MVP. The next year, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (NPB) won and Yu Darvish won the MVP award. In 2007, the Chunichi Dragons (NPB) won despite a stiff challenge from the SK Wyverns of the KBO. SK beat Chunichi in the first round before a close 6-5 loss in the championship game. Hirokazu Ibata was named MVP after his 9th-inning game-winning single off of former NPB hurler Mike Romano.

In the 2008 Asia Series, the three top teams all went 2-1 in the first round before the Japanese squad, the Seibu Lions, eked out a 1-0 win in the finale. The MVP was Tomoaki Sato. The 2011 Asia Series marked the first champion from outside Japan, as the Samsung Lions beat the Softbank Hawks, 5-3, in the finale. The MVP was Won-sam Jang, the first pitcher to win two games in an Asia Series.

After 2008, the event was canceled for financial reasons. Plans were made for it to be reinstated in 2010 but these fell through. It restarted in 2011.

[edit] Qualifiers

The tournament has four (4) qualifying teams based on the results of their domestic competition. These qualifiers are:

• Australia - winner of the Australian Baseball League (from 2005-2007, it was an all star team representing the China Baseball League (CBL) called the China Stars). In 2008, the China Baseball League winner participated)
• Japan - winner of the Nippon Series (NPB)
• South Korea - winner of the Korean Series (KBO)
• Taiwan - winner of the Taiwan Series (CPBL)

[edit] Format

The format is a 1 game round-robin, followed by a single championship game between the top two teams. All games are played with a designated hitter and a 10-run mercy rule.

[edit] Results